In the past few decades, the petroleum industry has invested heavily in the development of marine seismic survey techniques that yield knowledge of subterranean formations beneath a body of water in order to find and extract valuable mineral resources, such as oil. High-resolution seismic images of a subterranean formation are helpful for quantitative seismic interpretation and improved reservoir monitoring. For a typical marine seismic survey, a marine seismic survey vessel tows one or more seismic sources below the surface of the water and over a subterranean formation to be surveyed for mineral deposits. Seismic receivers may be located on or near the seafloor, on one or more streamers towed by the source vessel, or on one or more streamers towed by another vessel. The source vessel typically contains marine seismic survey equipment, such as navigation control, seismic source control, seismic receiver control, and recording equipment.
The seismic source control may cause the one or more seismic sources, which can be air guns, marine vibrators, among other sources described herein, to produce acoustic signals at selected times. Each acoustic signal is essentially a sound wave that travels through the water and into subterranean formations. At each interface between different types of rock or other subterranean material, a portion of the sound wave may be refracted, a portion of the sound wave may be transmitted, and another portion may be reflected back toward the body of water to propagate toward the surface. The seismic receivers thereby measure a wavefield that was ultimately initiated by the actuation of the seismic source. Planning and executing a marine seismic survey and processing the acquired data require an accurate model of the output wavefield of the seismic sources used in the marine seismic survey.